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Security report for hmc.edu

Harvey Mudd College · Education · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in SSL/TLS, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

56/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

Harvey Mudd College is a prestigious liberal arts college specializing in engineering, science, and mathematics education. The institution integrates STEM disciplines with humanities and social sciences to produce well-rounded graduates prepared for impactful careers. The website serves prospective students, current students, faculty, alumni, and other stakeholders by providing comprehensive academic program information, news, events, and resources. The college holds a strong market position with high rankings in ROI and career placement, emphasizing experiential learning through research and clinic programs. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern frameworks such as Bootstrap 5 and uses Google Tag Manager for analytics. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and well-structured, offering a positive user experience. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. Security posture is good with HTTPS enforced and no visible vulnerabilities, though security headers could be improved. Privacy compliance is partially met with a comprehensive privacy policy but lacks a cookie consent mechanism. Overall, the website is professional, trustworthy, and content-rich, reflecting the institution's reputation. The absence of WHOIS data for the exact queried domain is a minor concern but likely due to querying the subdomain rather than the base domain. Strategic recommendations include enhancing security headers, implementing cookie consent, publishing vulnerability disclosure information, and providing incident response contacts to further strengthen trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

6 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

  3. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching hmc.edu

This scan found 22 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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Full report

€39.90one-time

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
57
Security headers
15
Email security
90
DNS health
80
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
53
Average
56

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Harvey Mudd College operates as a non-profit educational institution focused on STEM liberal arts education. Its competitive advantage lies in its interdisciplinary curriculum, strong career placement, and experiential learning programs such as the Clinic and research opportunities. Revenue streams primarily come from tuition, donations, and grants. The target customer segments include high-achieving prospective students interested in STEM, current students, faculty, and research collaborators. The college maintains partnerships with related domains for admissions and merchandise. Growth indicators include active summer programs and ongoing research initiatives. The website reflects a mature digital presence aligned with institutional goals.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and no exposed sensitive data. However, the absence of key security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and Strict-Transport-Security suggests room for improvement. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is provided, which could hinder rapid response to security events. Privacy compliance is partially addressed with a detailed privacy policy but lacks explicit cookie consent mechanisms. Overall, the security culture appears professional but could benefit from enhanced transparency and technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and improve user transparency.
  3. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Provide clear incident response contact information for security issues.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and plugins to mitigate vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Harvey Mudd College
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Harvey Mudd College
Description
Harvey Mudd College is a liberal arts college focused on engineering, science, and mathematics education, integrating STEM and humanities to educate well-rounded scientists, engineers, and mathematicians.
Key services
Undergraduate education in STEM and humanities, Research opportunities, Clinic program for real-world projects, Summer and pre-collegiate programs
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Bootstrap 5, Google Tag Manager, Google Fonts, JavaScript ES6 modules
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with proper input types

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally maintained educational institution site.
  2. Content is rich, well-structured, and updated with recent news and events.
  3. No signs of phishing, malware, or suspicious content.
  4. No visible cookie consent banner despite privacy policy presence.
  5. WHOIS data is missing or inaccessible for the exact queried domain.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with Bootstrap 5 framework and uses modern JavaScript modules. It integrates Google Tag Manager for analytics and uses cloud.typography.com for fonts. The site is mobile responsive and accessible with good SEO practices. Performance is moderate, with potential improvements in caching and resource optimization. The absence of visible hosting provider information limits full infrastructure assessment. Overall, the technical implementation supports a professional and user-friendly experience but could benefit from performance tuning and enhanced security configurations.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

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